Van Dyck Law, LLC is a full service Estate Planning & Elder Law practice. They write about comprehensive planning in the areas of wills, trusts, powers of attorney, medical directives, Elder Law and probate & estate administration.

09/08/2017

Making Your Own Funeral Arrangements

“No one wants to talk about their death. It is not a pleasant conversation and it is generally awkward, emotional and uncomfortable.”

It’s not that uncommon to learn that a decedent made all of the arrangements for his or her own funeral: this includes selecting a casket, the burial site, the funeral home and details of the memorial service. This can make a person’s passing much easier on their family.

Hometown Life’s recent article, “Perhaps awkward, preplanning funeral makes sense,” says that no matter how much we ignore it, we’re all going to die. Considering funeral arrangements can only make things easier for those we leave behind. That’s when a family is usually in shock, emotional, depressed, stressed or otherwise not at their best.

Unfortunately, if you do not make your own funeral arrangements, then your loved ones will need to make them. That is probably the absolute worst time to arrange a funeral. It can be hard to think clearly after the death of a loved one, and people absent-mindedly overspend for funeral arrangements. As a result, the costs add up. A major advantage of funeral pre-planning is that you can make decisions with a clear head and focus more on the expenses. You also eliminate this burden from your family when they’re in grief.

When considering pre-planning your funeral, think about these issues:

Do you want to be cremated or buried?

Do you have a specific funeral home you want to use?

What type of casket do you want?

What type of service would you like to have?

If you settle these questions and pre-plan your funeral, then you remove the burden from your family, and you’re more likely to have your wishes followed and control the costs. Just like estate planning, it’s not just to save on taxes or avoid probate. It’s also because you want to make things as easy as possible on those you love, when you pass away.